I was commissioned to create a photographic memory of a large factory about to be demolished to make way to a shopping center. The project that resulted is all shot in Torino Italy, the city of FIAT automotive (and my hometown), which for many years was considered a dark, dirty, industrial city. In fact, Torino was exactly that: with its main income generated by heavy industry, pollution, trade unions, and big bucks were governing the city. Today, with the changing of economic priorities, the large industrial setup mutates: manufacturing is being moved abroad, industries are closing, and factories are being abandoned, or demolished.

Through these images I want to attest to this change by looking at the downfall of the places that were once the symbol of pride and strength of a city. What I discovered, as I photographed them, is that these places still retain a special energy, a life, even after they have been abandoned by people, and stripped of their machinery, of their routine, of their movement. Even through the impossible silence of the empty factories of today, one can still hear the thumping of machines, the ringing of telephones, the chatting of workers. Workers’ dreams, their hopes, their failures and their successes have all been retained by these slightly melodramatic walls. This is what I wanted to save, the life that these places keep on sharing, even as the day of their final demise, and total destruction approaches fast.